Antonio Muñoz Molina (Úbeda, 1956) is one of the Indispensable signatures of contemporary Spanish literature. His latest book “Summer Cervantes” (Seix Barral) is based on the lifelong reading “Don Quixote”. It intertwines memories of his childhood by revealing the place Hidalgo Manchego occupied in his literary profession.
Read ‘El Quixote’. Why are you issuing “Cervantes Summer” now?
Because it went this way. I like the books unexpectedly. I have read a lot of time many times, “Don Quixote de la Mancha” and I made me a lot of society. In the summer, it will do it for about 10 years, I started reading. In addition, it was perfect summer because I didn’t have to write a novel. I have two types of summer: the one I write a book is very concentrated and one that I can read without regret. I read “Don Quixote” again and began to copy meetings and freely make notes. He has always returned to these notebooks along the next years. I have gained more and more notes and I have already sensed the opportunity to create a book.
During the interview Antonio Muñoz Molina. / Ana de los Angeles
Always in the summer.
I realized the central summer in “Don Quixote de la Mancha”. On the one hand, the book itself always takes place in the summer, time does not take place. This led me to the memory of my first reading, which were also in the summer, in my city, in the state. And to discover, because I accidentally found “don quixote”. I had no one to lead me, or who told me “read it”. I read what I fell into my hands. I realized that the ease with which I read the book had to do with the fact that the world displayed looked a lot like mine. It was a rural world of the early 1960s, inside the province of Jaén. And the world was amazing many things from the Cervantes time.
I assume that Quixote, who reads today, will be very different from the one who has read in his childhood.
This happens to all of us with what we like. We have the core of things we always come back, be it books, music or movies. Books, if you care, must read them, at least twice. There are some that for some reason accompany you throughout your life. You are changing and talking to you at any moment. For example, the concrete way in which my reading “Don Quixote” has changed has a lot to do with the knowledge of something I haven’t repaired before, which is the importance of some female characters who decide to break the rules to find what they want. This now resonates in another way I could do, I am not saying 50 years, but even 20. I also realized that there were a lot of political chronicle. One thing that sits cervantes is cruelty and corruption in justice.
The book is not an essay about the work of cervantes, it is not a monograph. In what sex would it frame?
Look, when “Don Quixote” was published, no one knew what to call it. The new word did not apply to such books. I like to read and write books that escape the gender classification. It is not an essay, but has an essay part, has part of personal memory as a daily basis, immediate life. What is the name of this genre? Well, we don’t know.
It is said that “Don Quixote” establishes a modern novel because it shows the diversity of life. A good novel is an antidote against stereotypes ”
If we ask on the street, we are surprised that many have not read “El Quixote” in their lives. What happened?
It happens that reading a literary work is a much more sophisticated thing than it seems. When you read, you put much more into the book than you think. You are not a concert viewer, you are an interpreter. You play a score while reading. We all have learning processes and we go from the simplest to the most complex. We have to help us look. The process of achieving large literary works is gradual, it must be very careful and the reader accompanied.
How do you feel looser, writing or reading?
Freedom must be performed at any moment of life. Reading and writing and trying not to hurt or leave a toxic track in the world.
In his book, he says that “El Quixote” is a great encyclopedia of the world. What does it contain?
People. If you look, the whole novel, two parts, has the same structure that is going along the way and finding things. It’s like a scheme of life. You go in a way and are looking for people, adventures and if you pay some attention, you will find all aspects of human experience. You get up in the morning and how many worlds are you going through, how many people are you? You realize the diversity of people. Every person has his own life, his dignity. This is not a hierarchical problem. Epic poems are mainly tried by heroes, princes. “Don Quixote” is about people from the landscape, people who are not in literature, working people, prostitutes, multeers, maurdays that have secretly returned to Spain, people who were lost, thieves. It is always said that “Don Quixote” founded a modern novel. The case in the sense in which it shows wealth, diversity of life and the value of each particular individual. This means that a good novel is an antidote against stereotypes.
How would cervantes write today “don quixote” in times of mental health?
Cervantes has always paid great attention to mental health, both in “Don Quixote” and in “exemplary novels”, among other things. The power that the character has is not that he is an idealist madman, but that he is very reasonable in almost everything and in a few things completely foolish. We all have areas where we are absolutely deliberate and suddenly we have a biological disorder, either for political, loving or religious reasons. This is, in my opinion, the power that has this character. It depicts the basic element of the human mind, which is the ability to alternate clarity with blindness.
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